Emerging designer Jane Wade, who currently has a two-season exclusive with Bergdorf Goodman, brought her Brooklyn-based label to New York Fashion Week with a debut runway show on Sunday afternoon.
Since launching her label in January 2022 the designer has been whipping up a meld of polish and downtown edge through her lens of reworked business-meets-utility garb. Wade expanded on the idea of overhauling corporate identity with a spring collection that cheekily riffed on office archetypes.
“Emma’s receptionist, she’s coming in easy with her headphones on,” she said backstage of look one’s three-piece cotton poplin convertible bustier dress; “Donovan, the remote meeting” donned a boxy blazer with branded boxers, and Wade’s archetype, the “She-EO,” was clad in a tube dress with slightly exaggerated train.
Other highlights included her “out-of-office” open short-sleeve button-down over underboob-revealing bra top and hybrid pin-striped shirting skirt (reworked shirting is a strong throughline of her designs); utility layers with button-off pockets; chain mail dresses made up of hundreds of custom metal imprint tags; gorpcore accents by Soloman, and her oversized blazer with exaggerated sleeves and shoulders.
“A lot of these looks are versions of old pieces, but deconstructed or oversized and exaggerated versions of them,” Wade said of the mostly cotton lineup. Although similar iterations of the designer’s spring looks are currently available on her e-commerce, it was nice to see her strong point of view and distinct designs in movement.
